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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What example does Hobbes give as a meaningless combination of words?
(a) easy labor
(b) holy war
(c) gentle giant
(d) round square

2. What is needed to be able to judge what is just or unjust?
(a) statistics
(b) judges
(c) lawyers
(d) contracts

3. What does Hobbes say ends a discourse?
(a) A person runs out of anything to say.
(b) A person speaks a different language.
(c) A person learns the answer to a question or he/she gives up.
(d) A person grows tired of talking and shuts up.

4. When a multitude becomes one group, what must they select?
(a) a representative who is trusted by all the group members
(b) an appropriate meeting place large enough to accomodate all
(c) the furniture that is appropriate for a group
(d) a set of rules, regulations, and by-laws

5. What does Hobbes accept when peace is impossible?
(a) hiding
(b) diplomacy
(c) surrender
(d) war

6. What needs to be given to the shy people?
(a) encouragement to get out and attain what the others have
(b) large amounts of financial aid
(c) laws to prevent their abuse
(d) an economic bailout package

7. What do counsels for the aristocracy generally do?
(a) Offer plans for governing change
(b) Last for days or even months
(c) Excite the multitude to create change
(d) Serve no useful purpose

8. What is the first right of a sovereign power?
(a) the right to keep changing the laws to its advantage
(b) the right to remain in power
(c) the right to live in a palace
(d) the right to own slaves

9. In his comparison of the commonwealth to the body, what does Hobbes identify as the role of the sovereign?
(a) the soul of the commonwealth, which is the body
(b) the father of the commonwealth, which is his responsibility
(c) the spine of the commonwealth, which keeps it erect
(d) the head of the commonwealth, which is the mind

10. What are some of his voluntary motions?
(a) functions like pulse and respiration
(b) internals like digesting and breathing
(c) feelings like desire, appetite, love and hate
(d) activities like hearing and seeing

11. In political systems, what are the two avenues of laws?
(a) One is by revolution, and the other is by civil disobedience.
(b) One is their own written laws, the other is laws of the sovereign.
(c) One is by traditions, and the second is by innovation.
(d) One is by a constitution and the other is by police power.

12. Why does Hobbes say that virtue is comparative?
(a) If there are no comparisons there are no problems.
(b) If all things were equal, this would be heaven.
(c) If all things were equal in all men, nothing would be prized.
(d) If virtue is equal then there is no evil.

13. What seems to be a contradiction in Hobbes' attitude toward protest?
(a) People can legally protest but they can only do it openly.
(b) People are legally able to protest a political system, but not against the sovereign.
(c) People cannot protest but they can camgaign for change.
(d) People can protest but they cannot organize.

14. Who does Hobbes insist is of the greatest value to a commonwealth?
(a) the banker
(b) the teacher
(c) the minister
(d) the sovreign

15. How can it be said that each man in a group has a voice?
(a) because their representative shares their same opinions
(b) because they get to speak one by one
(c) because they all speak in unison
(d) because no deaf mute is allowed to participate

Short Answer Questions

1. What two factors does Hobbes believe control mental discourse?

2. Why must people create a covenant or agreement to give power to one person, or small group of people?

3. How does Hobbes define a pact or covenant?

4. What is the term he uses for reasoning with another person?

5. What does Hobbes say a person is doing when he stops defending himself?

(see the answer keys)

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